Dual-Mercury Operation
- PowerSDR v2.2.3.dual_Mercury (K5SO 25MAR2012): The program is a modification of the W5WC PowerSDR v2.2.3 to which diversity reception with phasing/nulling is implemented using dual, coherent Mercury boards on the Atlas bus with all of the features that are present in PowerSDR v2.2.3. The program includes front panel controls to select among Mercury 1 only, Mercury 2 only, or both Mercury boards in a diversity mode and a phasing control to adjust both the relative phase and relative amplitude of the dual Mercury IQ data streams. "Polarization diversity" is achieved by connecting the two Mercury inputs to antennas of different polarization (e.g., orhogonal monopoles on a feedhorn or one to each antenna of a "cross-pol" array or to generic antennas of different polarizations). "Spatial diversity" is achieved by connecting two spatially separated antennas, one to each Mercury board. Alex filter support is included.
- Mercury v7.3 (or Mercury v3.2) FPGA firmware be loaded into the Mercury boards and Penelope v1.7 firmware loaded into Penelope. If using Metis, Metis v1.8 must be used.. If using Ozy or Magister, Ozy_v2.2 will automatically be loaded on a fresh power up of the Atlas bus. Metis v1.8, Mercury v7.3, and Ozy v2.2 firmware are compatible with most versions of the latest HPSDR software transparently, to my knowledge. Mercury v7.3 implements a single receiver in each Mercury FPGA. The second Mercury board can remain on the Atlas bus while running the other programs with no ill effects; the second Mercury board is simply ignored by single-receiver programs. If some button controls don't appear properly you may need to put the "Skins" folders below into the FlexRadio Systems > PowerSDR > Skins folder as indicated below.
- Note to new users: It is suggested that if you do not currently have the W5WC PowerSDR v2.2.3 program running on your machine that you download and install W5WC's program first to ensure that the FlexRadio Systems folder exists on your machine. PowerSDR v2.2.3.dual_Mercury will use files in that folder.
- FIRMWARE REQUIRED:
- Mercury v7.3 (or Mercury v3.2; v7.3 implements a single receiver in each Mercury board for 32% utilization of available FPGA logic resources whereas v3.2 implements four receivers in each Mercury board for 98% usage of FPGA logic resources)
- Metis v1.8 (if using Metis)
- If you are using Ozy or Magister, Ozy v2.2 will be automatically loaded when PSDR is run from a fresh power up of Atlas.
- Penelope v1.7
- EXECUTABLE CODE:
- SOURCE CODE:
- PowerSDR v2.2.3.dual_Mercury (K5SO 25MAR2012) (24 MB, complete package, executable, source, and Visual Studio 2008 source code solution)
- FIRMWARE:
- Firmware_Update_Package 29APR2012 (3.2 MB) (includes .rbf and .qar files for Metis, Ozy, Mercury and Penelope; also .jic files for Mercury and Penelope)
- The .rbf files are used for loading into the boards using HPSDRProgrammer via ethernet with Metis or with a Blaster cable using USB, the .jic files are for loading using the USBBlaster-Binaries folder method via the "simulated Blaster cable" via USB. The .qar files are source code (archive file from the Quartus II project).
- USBBlaster-Binaries folder (2.4 MB) (updated 21APR2012) (includes files to use Ozy/Magister to load Mercury_v7.3 and Penelope_v1.7 and a choice to use Quartus II Programmer v11.1)
- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- Skins:
- K5SO Blue2 (1.4 MB, put into the FlexRadio Systems > PowerSDR > Skins folder on your machine)
- W5WC 2D Gray (0.5 MB, put into the FlexRadio Systems > PowerSDR > Skins folder on your machine)
- Clock connections and jumpers needed for multiple-Mercury board operations (five photos)
- How to set VAC Rx gain for proper decoding when using digital mode
- Atlas bus pin assignments used for multiple Mercury board operations (12 KB) (Excel spreadsheet)